Jared and I unexpectedly welcomed baby Maycen Lynn Toppenberg to the world at 1030 am on December 30th 2009. She weighed 6 pounds 5 oz and was 20 cm long. Named because all good things have happened for us in May, our wedding, news of expecting a baby (Mother's day) with her and Lynn for my middle name and Jared's Mom Karen's middle name that passed away from Breast Cancer. Mae is also my Grandmothers Middle Name. But Jared did not want the spelling to be Maesyn.
Some of the pictures I am including are from a few minutes after birth she had a very large Hematoma on her head so she looks like she has two heads from all the pressure. Luckily it resolved in about 3 hours and her marks from coming through the wrong way are better and now she looks amazing.
Where to begin, Sorry this is overly detailed but that way I have a record of our day as well. I picked up an extra day of work so I would not have to use my leave so I worked 12 hours on Monday and Tuesday. We have a baby pool at work and I have been crossing off the dates as each day had passed. No one had picked the days this week, everyone thought I would go late. Most of you know that is what I was hoping for too because I did not want her to have a birthday close to Christmas. Well miss Maycen had her own plan. I had my 38 week appt and asked not to be checked because I did not want to stir things up in there...Our carpet was due to be installed on the next day and Jared was moving furniture as I spoke and our house was in poor condition. (Everything had been nicely organized and ready for her until now. I mentioned at my appointment that I thought I might be leaking possibly she did not think so and said it is probably just my body getting ready for birth and that I will know when my water breaks. I also mentioned to Jared that my phantom wisdom teeth hurt...I joked hopefully nothing will happen today as usually my teeth hurt right before I get my monthly or my hormones shift. He never believed me about this till now..
So I had given report at work and started my car with my auto start from the window and then went to look at the baby pool one more time to see if I could cross off a day. As I stood there thinking about Dr. Connor's comment, when she yelled to her husband to get something, her water broke. Right then I felt a trickle sensation and hurried to the bathroom and yep my water had broke.
My co workers wheeled me down to Labor and Delivery as I kept saying over and over I can't have her today my carpet is coming tomorrow, my house is a mess. They checked me in and it was confirmed that it was my water and I was dilated to 3cm and 80 % effaced. Wow, I was just walking around like that, Huh, I was a bit surprised. I had been feeling more contractions all week and through the day but it wasn't that bad. So I called Jared and He thought I was kidding and playing a prank on him because of the carpet install. So once he figured it out and had my list of what to bring, thanks goodness I had pre-packed:) He arrived to find me already in my labor room. Because I was GBS positive I had to get an IV right away of Penicillin, I knew this before hand that if my water broke I would need to have this. I was also told that if my contractions did not pick up they would want to do Pitocin which I did not want, at least not without and epidural. I wasn't originally planning on doing it natural but I did go to a natural birth class and decided that I would try natural as long as possible if I could labor at home and did not get Pitocin or a c-section obviously. Well by 4am they wanted to augment my labor with pitocin I was having contractions now but not regular enough or strong enough to dilate me quickly. Labor and deliver had 4 patients the day before and for some reason, full moon maybe, they filled up to the max the day I went into labor. So I think they also wanted to augment my labor to hurry us along a bit. At 4am I was 5 cm and 100% dilated. I was having horrible back labor and Jared and I had attempted to watch " 4 Christmas's" but with the contractions and pain and walking the floor to advance my labor we really didn't get to see much. So I was progressing having contractions about every 2 minutes lasting 30-60 secs but that still was not enough for the medical team and they wanted me to progress faster. At 5am they came in and said, in my weak moments of contracting, we need to progress you faster and want to do pitocin. So At this point I was so miserable and Jared was helpful with techniques from our birth class but we were both so tired, I said if we are doing Pitocin then I wanted an epidural in place. Which I am SOOO happy I decided to do this, I was so exhausted already from no sleep and working 2-12 hours and now in labor, Back labor at that. Knowing what I know now I made the best decision in my weakest moment. So this man from heaven came in and placed my epidural... sadly he missed but it was a lot less painful than I would have thought the hardest part was holding still during the contractions. This was Jared's Least favorite part and made him a little light headed.
My co workers wheeled me down to Labor and Delivery as I kept saying over and over I can't have her today my carpet is coming tomorrow, my house is a mess. They checked me in and it was confirmed that it was my water and I was dilated to 3cm and 80 % effaced. Wow, I was just walking around like that, Huh, I was a bit surprised. I had been feeling more contractions all week and through the day but it wasn't that bad. So I called Jared and He thought I was kidding and playing a prank on him because of the carpet install. So once he figured it out and had my list of what to bring, thanks goodness I had pre-packed:) He arrived to find me already in my labor room. Because I was GBS positive I had to get an IV right away of Penicillin, I knew this before hand that if my water broke I would need to have this. I was also told that if my contractions did not pick up they would want to do Pitocin which I did not want, at least not without and epidural. I wasn't originally planning on doing it natural but I did go to a natural birth class and decided that I would try natural as long as possible if I could labor at home and did not get Pitocin or a c-section obviously. Well by 4am they wanted to augment my labor with pitocin I was having contractions now but not regular enough or strong enough to dilate me quickly. Labor and deliver had 4 patients the day before and for some reason, full moon maybe, they filled up to the max the day I went into labor. So I think they also wanted to augment my labor to hurry us along a bit. At 4am I was 5 cm and 100% dilated. I was having horrible back labor and Jared and I had attempted to watch " 4 Christmas's" but with the contractions and pain and walking the floor to advance my labor we really didn't get to see much. So I was progressing having contractions about every 2 minutes lasting 30-60 secs but that still was not enough for the medical team and they wanted me to progress faster. At 5am they came in and said, in my weak moments of contracting, we need to progress you faster and want to do pitocin. So At this point I was so miserable and Jared was helpful with techniques from our birth class but we were both so tired, I said if we are doing Pitocin then I wanted an epidural in place. Which I am SOOO happy I decided to do this, I was so exhausted already from no sleep and working 2-12 hours and now in labor, Back labor at that. Knowing what I know now I made the best decision in my weakest moment. So this man from heaven came in and placed my epidural... sadly he missed but it was a lot less painful than I would have thought the hardest part was holding still during the contractions. This was Jared's Least favorite part and made him a little light headed.
Once the line was placed Jared and I slept for about 30-40 minutes it was 6am at this point and the new shift was coming on. I could still feel the contractions and now the pitocin was going to start. They started me at 4cc and once they hit they took over little Maycen a bit too much, She had HR drops to the 80's for several seconds. There was talk of Tributaline injection stat to reverse the pitocin. I said no way, I was worried it would stop my labor all together. So they Gave her a few seconds to recover and after a bunch of positioning and Oxygen for me, she did. So they stopped the Pitocin. I was having contractions on my own so they just decided to let me labor naturally. Thank goodness, I could still feel the contractions a bit and could tell when one was starting but my legs were annoyingly numb and heavy I would have loved a walking epidural or just a local. At 7:30 am I was 100% and 9.5 cm. The dayshift came on and I got new nurses "Help me" Rhonda and my dayshift midwives were Ms. Backman and Ms. Michels two of the ones on the team I wanted for my labor, so I was happy. However, they came in and said I was going to labor down and at about 8am they said I was ready to push.
So I pushed but nothing was progressing, They said she was OP or sunny side up...two words, I will never think of as I did before, Eggs and Swim shorts. So she was facing the wrong way and her head was stuck above my pubic bone. They did an ultrasound during labor to confirm her position and found she was sucking on her hand as well instead of having her arms down. She kept having Occasional Heart Rate decels below 90 and this concerned my midwives. I had to take breaks between contractions and stay on Oxygen. There was talk of forceps delivery and I said I wanted to try a little longer what ever they thought would work. So I was repositioned with my heavy numb legs from side to side and holding onto my own legs. It was pretty interesting but then my Midwife said she wanted to do a strange positioning to get her out it was getting a little too close to distressing baby, So she climbed in the bed behind me and basically made me into a sleigh position, I pushed against her chest in this awkward upside down knee to chest position. So I guess I was the horse and the sleigh or maybe she was the horse. Well thank goodness it worked and out she came, she actually came out so fast she somersault across the bed and came out with two thick cords wrapped around her neck tight. I was really worried when I saw the cords and they put her to my chest and I rubbed her to get her to breath and cry but, she really was purply gray and limp as a noodle. They gave her Oxygen and the Neonatologist were called to assist and they gave her CPAP, which is pressurized oxygen to open her lungs more. She came around and pinked up and began to make little cries. Oh, what a relief it was.
So I pushed but nothing was progressing, They said she was OP or sunny side up...two words, I will never think of as I did before, Eggs and Swim shorts. So she was facing the wrong way and her head was stuck above my pubic bone. They did an ultrasound during labor to confirm her position and found she was sucking on her hand as well instead of having her arms down. She kept having Occasional Heart Rate decels below 90 and this concerned my midwives. I had to take breaks between contractions and stay on Oxygen. There was talk of forceps delivery and I said I wanted to try a little longer what ever they thought would work. So I was repositioned with my heavy numb legs from side to side and holding onto my own legs. It was pretty interesting but then my Midwife said she wanted to do a strange positioning to get her out it was getting a little too close to distressing baby, So she climbed in the bed behind me and basically made me into a sleigh position, I pushed against her chest in this awkward upside down knee to chest position. So I guess I was the horse and the sleigh or maybe she was the horse. Well thank goodness it worked and out she came, she actually came out so fast she somersault across the bed and came out with two thick cords wrapped around her neck tight. I was really worried when I saw the cords and they put her to my chest and I rubbed her to get her to breath and cry but, she really was purply gray and limp as a noodle. They gave her Oxygen and the Neonatologist were called to assist and they gave her CPAP, which is pressurized oxygen to open her lungs more. She came around and pinked up and began to make little cries. Oh, what a relief it was.
Some of the pictures I am including are from a few minutes after birth she had a very large Hematoma on her head so she looks like she has two heads from all the pressure. Luckily it resolved in about 3 hours and her marks from coming through the wrong way are better and now she looks amazing.
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